Correa is not exactly loved by the US which has historically had a problem with democratically elected governments which are vaguely socialist in their leanings.

According to Parity News, it is believed that Correa feared that he might have the election stolen from him by hackers, either US-based or otherwise. So he hired Mitnick to protect the Net Lock computer system that has been assigned the task of tabulating Ecuador's elections.

Mitnick tweeted that 18 years ago he was busted for hacking. He now does the same thing with full authorisation. "How cool is that?", he asked.

For those who don't remember, in the 1990s Mitnick was on a hacking spree where he gained access to hundreds of universities, personal computers and corporate networks including the likes of Apple, Motorola and even the FBI.

He was arrested and banged up for five years. After his release, Mitnick helped private and public entities by providing them security consulting. He was hired by the US government to mitigate cyber threats.

Correa's re-election is unlikely to sit that well with the US government. The US-trained economist has created his own "Citizens' Revolution," a socialist-oriented economic program with some similarities to what Chavez achieved in Venezuela. Like Chavez, he is popular, but is sometimes slammed for being authoritarian.